UNCANNY ECOLOGY Brenden Bjerke

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Gabriel Esquivel COMMITTEE CHAIR

Stephen Caffey COMMITTEE MEMBER

Andrew Tripp COMMITTEE MEMBER

Susanneh Bieber COMMITTEE MEMBER

James Haliburton STUDIO PROFESSOR CONTENTS

Project Statement 5

Theoretical Framework 7

Aesthetic Theory 11

Drawing Studies 18

Object Creation 19

Site 27

Machines 35

Material 41

Media 49 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 1; exterior render

PROJECT STATEMENT

UNCANNY ECOLOGY denies the artificial divide between humanity and nature, and acknowledges the agency of non-human things in the design process. By scrutinizing aesthetic and philosophical precedents, the created object exists in a way that challenges anthropocentric hierarchies that privilege humans and the human made world above all other things. The resulting project can be understood as an ontological network of objects in which architecture is reinserted into an ecology that includes both the “human” and the “natural” worlds.

5 6 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

In Dark Ecology, Tim Morton rock would “exist” even in the absence there is something about each object architecture exists in the same argues that everything exists with a gap of any physicality. This is where that remains hidden when objects oppositional relationship with between its appearance and its being. philosophical realism distinguishes interact with each other, and these nature, framing the construction of Any object I interact with “appears” itself from idealism. Idealism theorizes hidden qualities are as real as any architecture as the destruction of to me as a collection of sensorial a reality that exists only in the mind part of the object that appears. nature; “less architecture therefore experiences; reflections of light, sound of the subject (always a human), Within this framework we can yields better ecology” (Gage 100). waves, nerve signals relating to touch, but realism argues for a reality that begin to scrutinize how we as humans To illustrate this point, Morton etc. These phenomena pair together to exists independent of subjective relate to the objects around us in new borrows the idea of the uncanny valley create my understanding of what that experience, or outside the mind of ways. This has obvious implications from robotics. In this idea, as a robot specific object is. We often understand an individual (human) subject. In for our relationship with the idea becomes more and more human-like, these phenomena as the reality of the a realist framework such as OOO, of nature. The preference toward it enters a space of resemblance that we object, but object oriented ontology simply recreating the phenomena of idealism, among other things, has can’t quite categorize as human. This (OOO) argues that the reality of an the rock in my mind does not mean allowed humans to artificially elevate denial of categorization triggers the object is more complex than simply that the rock really exists. There is ourselves conceptually above the uncanny unease that comes from our how it “appears” to other things. A something more to the reality of the nonhuman things around us. This fear of the non-human invading the rock may appear to me as a specific rock beyond what can be accessed by idea, known as anthropocentrism, has human world. In Morton’s discussion set of sensory phenomena, but if the a human subject (or any subject). This warped our understanding of what of ecology, this same uncanny feeling reality of that rock is only defined by is what Morton means when he talks nature is and our place in an ecology, is triggered when we struggle to those phenomena, then the rock can’t about the gap between appearing and conceptually removing humans from categorize something as distinctly be thought of to exist “in itself,” but being. If appearing is the reality of an the natural ecology that surrounds us, human or distinctly natural. This is rather only as a collection of subjective object that can be accessed by another inadvertently creating an oppositional because it threatens our subjective experiences. If you were to remove the object through interactions, “being” relationship between the “natural reality in which nature, as the other, physical rock, but somehow recreate is the reality of the object that can’t be world” and the “human world.” As infringes on “our” world. the phenomena in my mind, then the accessed in this way. In simpler terms, an extensions of the “human world,” The categorization of humans as

7 8 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke

distinctly separate from (and elevated as human or natural objects, above) non-human things in the acknowledging the agency of non- Anthropocene has played a critical human things in the creation of role in the climate crises caused by an architectural object, and giving anthropogenic climate change. This aesthetic attention to objects and has made it clear that this conception ecological interactions previously of reality is no longer appropriate seen as unworthy of it, we can begin to for us today. We can no longer think imagine an ecology in which humans of nature simply as “that stuff out are not removed from but deeply there.” Contemporary notions of integrated into the ecology around us, sustainability, while important to equal actors among many. slow the addition of harmful actions, continue to operate within the same understanding of reality which has enabled the current crises to exist. It is likely that long lasting relief from these dangers will require a new understanding of how we think about our place in the world. Uncanny Ecology aims to imagine a new relationship between humans and nature, using architecture as the driver. By developing aesthetic approaches that deny categorization

9 10 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 2; The Hay Wain - John Constable (1821)

AESTHETIC THEORY

Constable’s Hay-wain, a classic we are interacting with this kind of example of picturesque aesthetics, curated and controlled idealization of presents an image of an idealized nature, alienating us further from nature in which limited human the idyllic wilderness that we think intervention allows for a pristine nature represents. image of a relatively untouched and pure landscape, nature at its best. But this idealized image does not represent a replication of an existing pristine landscape, but is instead an imagined one in which the artist has created a fantasy of what they believe a beautiful landscape could (or perhaps should) look like. Picturesque representations of nature, such as Constable’s Hay-wain, show an idealized version of nature that has been imagined and curated to elicit an emotional response for a human subject. Rather than depicting nature as it is, it is altered solely to make it more appealing to a human subject. When we scrutinize our interactions with nature, we find that most of the

11 12 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke

The sublime, an example of which is shown in John Martin’s painting to the left, can also alienate us from the idea of nature. By depicting scenes of nature which elicit fear and deny a sense of understandable scale, nature becomes a transcendental threat. Something that exists outside of us, as the other, and creates a sense of anxiety and fear due to our inability to fully grasp it. fig. 3; The Great Day of His Wrath - John Martin (1851-1853) Martin - John Wrath of His fig. 3; The Great Day

13 14 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 4; The Skeletons, from Grotteschi (Grotesques) - Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1748)

Piranesi’s Grotteschi series drawings can be misread as representing a different conception of reality. By depicting a collection of objects, both human and non-human, in a way that doesn’t privilege any singular object or figure, the scene can be seen as representing a more inclusive ecology of objects, one that includes human and non-human things as equal actors. This misreading provides a starting point for the development of aesthetic characteristics that challenge anthropocentric realities.

15 16 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke

DRAWING STUDIES fig. 5; ontocartographic drawing based on Piranesi drawing fig. 5; ontocartographic based on ontocartography drawing fig. 6; speculative

Using Piranesi as a base, a series of drawings were created as studies to begin to develop a formal logic that capitalizes on the ontological implications of the drawing. The first of these is a simple exercise of grouping objects as a kind of ontocartographic map of the relationships between the objects in the drawing (fig. 5). Extracting an ordering logic of grids and circles from this allowed for the creation of new figures that follow a similar formal logic (fig. 6). Finally, these new figures were fragmented to expose a potential logic of joinery and overlayed onto a topographic drawing to imagine this process as a mapping of a speculative site with the trace of Piranesi (fig. 7). fig. 7; exploring drawing studies as speculative site map as speculative studies drawing fig. 7; exploring

17 18 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 9; extrusion object isometric view

OBJECT CREATION fig. 8; extrusion object top view fig. 8; extrusion fig. 11; loft object elevation view A series of objects were created from the speculative figures of the drawing studies using a set of simple digital operations - extrude, revolve, and loft (figs 8-14). Using these operations begins to acknowledge the agency of the software in the design and creation of the objects. The inherent logic and parameters of the software impart a certain sensibility onto the object depending on the specific command used. Human object top view fig. 10; loft agency is reasserted upon evaluation fig. 13; revolve object isometric view of the output, allowing us to adjust the process or curate new inputs. The arrangement of the individual objects into aggregations composed of objects from all of the series of commands allows for opportunities to highlight or obscure the legibility of each aesthetic sensibility. fig. 12; revolve object elevation view elevation object fig. 12; revolve

19 20 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 14; full set of digital objects set of digital fig. 14; full

21 22 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 19; arrangement study 02 elevation view fig. 20; arrangement study 02 elevation view fig. 15; arrangement study 01 elevation view elevation 01 study arrangement fig. 15; fig. 16; arrangement study 01 elevation view elevation 01 study arrangement fig. 16; fig. 21; arrangement study 02 top view fig. 22; arrangement study 02 isometric view fig. 17; arrangement study 01 top view study arrangement fig. 17; fig. 18; arrangement study 01 isometric view 01 isometric study arrangement fig. 18;

23 24 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 27; arrangement study 04 elevation view fig. 28; arrangement study 04 elevation view fig. 23; arrangement study 03 elevation view elevation 03 study arrangement fig. 23; fig. 24; arrangement study 03 elevation view elevation 03 study arrangement fig. 24; fig. 29; arrangement study 04 top view fig. 30; arrangement study 04 isometric view fig. 25; arrangement study 03 top view study arrangement fig. 25; fig. 26; arrangement study 03 isometric view 03 isometric study arrangement fig. 26;

25 26 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 31; satellite image of Discovery Park in NW Seattle

SITE

Acknowledging the speculative scene that supports the narrative nature of the project allows for of unspoiled nature within reach experimenting with new ways of of urban life. However, the history approaching architectural challenges of the park does not support this like site and program. By focusing narrative. The site has undergone a less on some of the practicalities series of developments, clearing and associated with the topics of site reforestation, then redevelopment and program, they can be thought that has left almost no part of the of as mediums for expressing and site in its “natural” state. Instead it amplifying the argument of the has been largely curated to create a project. For example, Discovery Park picturesque environment in service to in northwest Seattle was chosen as human fantasies of unspoiled nature. the site specifically for the existing To further reinforce this image, the ecological conditions and for the West Point Treatment plant, one opportunities that those conditions of the largest wastewater treatment provided for positioning the project plants in Seattle, is pushed down the against existing notions of human west edge of the site and intentionally interaction with our environments. surrounded by trees that hide it The park is home to diverse wildlife from human view at eye level. This from endangered birds to salmon treatment makes clear that this specific breeding runs. This combined kind of ecological management is not with the towering trees and views aesthetically worthy of the idealized of the Puget Sound and Olympic fantasy of nature. Mountain Range add up to an idyllic Expanding the treatment plant

27 28 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 32; Aerial view of Discovery Park fig. 33; Discovery Park in the fall

then provides a powerful example of mapped onto the site and used to carve aesthetic treatment that the project out the ground, therefore influencing can position itself against. We can no the design as both solid and void. longer hide the kinds of ecological Carving also reveals the geological interactions that reveal the scale with layers that have built up over millenia, which we are intertwined with nature making clear that the geological layer fig. 34; Aerial view of West Point Treatment Plant fig. 35; Aerial view of West Point Treatment Plant and Discovery Park behind a few rows of trees. Instead, of the Anthropocene will be just the treatment of human waste is given another layer of evidence of a series of prominent placement in an otherwise changing ecologies. idealized natural setting. The machinery involved in this process is exposed at some points outside the object, which itself has an aesthetic quality that attempts to deny an ability to place it as something strictly human or strictly natural. It does not look like what we expect something to look like through natural processes. Nor does it look like what we would expect a human designed industrial plant to look like. Additionally, the same figures that resulted in the series of digital objects and aggregations are again

29 30 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 36; site map showing arrangement of objects into clusters

31 32 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 37; cluster 01 axonometric view fig. 38; cluster 02 axonometric view fig. 39; cluster 03 isometric view

33 34 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 41; plan 1

MACHINES

The arrangement of the machinery is yet another opportunity to position against our expectations. Rather than arranging them in accordance with efficiency, they take inspiration from the arrangement of sculptures and other artworks on the walls of the John Soane Museum in London. Here, an otherwise smooth surface of walls gain a highly saturated textural quality. In the image shown, the artworks are even poched in the same manner as the walls, pointing to their importance as an element of the architecture. Giving this kind of aesthetic attention to the machinery gives a prominence to this specific kind of ecological interaction that it is usually denied. The machinery is neither hidden nor arranged in an optimized functional way, but rather is arranged with an artful intention.

fig. 40; Sectional Perspective of the Dome Are Looking East - George Bailey Are Looking the Dome Perspective of fig. 40; Sectional

35 36 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 43; wall section fig. 42; section 1 fig. 42; section

37 38 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 45; section zoom 2 fig. 44; section zoom 1 fig. 44; section

39 40 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 46; exterior render of cluster 1

MATERIAL

The application of the material v agency in the expression of the combines digital techniques that aesthetic characteristics imparted attempt to have characteristics that onto the objects from the digital we might expect from both “natural” operations. and “synthetic” materials. Here again we see the uncanny in the denial of categorization as human or natural. The objects possess a polished and at times reflective effect that we associate with a synthetic material, but they are also overlayed with images from the aesthetic studies from the early stages of the project that blend aesthetic characteristics associated with idealized landscapes. The result is a varied surface effect that at times triggers associations with smooth reflective surfaces, and at others with gradated textures that can be reminiscent of “natural” formations like cliffs and canyons. The application of these effects can be adjusted also to highlight or obscure the geometry of the object, providing another moment

41 42 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 47; exterior render of cluster 1 render of fig. 47; exterior

43 44 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 50; exterior render of cluster 1 fig. 48; exterior render of cluster 1 render of fig. 48; exterior fig. 49; exterior render of cluster 2 render of fig. 49; exterior

45 46 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 51; exterior render of clusters 1 and 2 clusters 1 render of fig. 51; exterior

47 48 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 52; model photo

Media

The creation of a physical model reveal the approach to organization and allows us to scrutinize the ontology of composition of space and machines, the project further. When considering and now the physical model reveals an architectural project, we typically 3 dimensional implications that can assume that the built object is the only be approximated through other “actual” object and all the drawings, mediums. renders, and other representations are Here again we see the gap in service to that object. In the absence between appearing and being. of a building, it may be tempting to Uncanny Ecology, as an object, now consider the physical model as appears to us in several ways through the “actual” object of this project and different mediums. However, there is that all the images leading up to this no medium that allows us to access point have again been in service of the full reality of the object. It is the physical object. For this project, withdrawn, to use the term from however, it is more appropriate to Graham Harman, and therefore has its recognize the different ways that own objective existence, independent this project exists simultaneously. of a singular human subject. By There is not one single image or acknowledging this, we acknowledge representational medium that allows that the power of representational us to access the full reality of Uncanny mediums for designers is in their Ecology. Instead, each medium reveals ability to expand our access to the different qualities of the project. The reality of the object we are attempting renders reveal the intentions of the to design. material and its effects, the drawings

49 50 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 54; model photo fig. 55; model photo fig. 56; model photo fig. 57; model photo fig. 53; model photo fig. 53; model

51 52 Uncanny Ecology Brenden Bjerke fig. 59; model photo fig. 58; model photo fig. 58; model

53 54 REFERENCES

[Aerial view of Discovery Park]. (n.d.). Seattle Mag. https://www.seattlemag.com/northwest-travel-and-outdoors/discovering- Morton, T. (2016). Dark Ecology; For a Logic of Future Coexistence. Columbia discovery-park University Press.

[Aerial view of West Point Treatment Plant]. (n.d.). Prism. Piranesi, G. (1748). The Skeletons, from Grotteschi [Etching with engraving, http://www.prism.washington.edu/file/show/2503 drypoint, and burnishing]. Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York City, NY. The Met (n.d.). Retrieved from: [Aerial view of West Point Treatment Plant and Discovery Park]. (n.d.). JTS https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/361994 Seattle. https://jts-seattle.com/project/west-point-treatment-plant/ Vogel, S. (1996). Against Nature; The Concept of Nature in Critical Theory. State University of New York Press. Constable, J. (1821). The Hay Wain [Oil on canvas]. The National Gallery London. London, UK. The National Gallery (n.d.). Retrieved from: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/john-constable-the-hay- wain

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Friends of Discovery Park. (n.d.). [Discovery Park in the fall]. The Cultural Landscape Foundation. https://tclf.org/sites/default/files/microsites/landslide2017/discovery-park. html

Gage, M. F. (2019). Designing Social Equality; Architecture, Aesthetics, and the Perception of Democracy. Routledge.

Harman, G. (2018). Object-oriented ontology: a new theory of everything. Pelican.

Martin, J. (1851-53). The Great Day of His Wrath [Oil on canvas]. Tate. Millbank, UK. Tate (n.d.). Retrieved from: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/martin-the-great-day-of-his- wrath-n05613

Marx, L. (1964). The Machine in the Garden. Oxford university press.